FORT LUPTON — Family friend, trusted ally, political confidant – the many roles of Stanley David Norcross, former mayor and council member of Fort Lupton, were recounted at a memorial service at the city’s historic fort April 10.

Photos by Ben Wiebesiek

County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer recounts memories of Stanley David Norcross during a memorial service April 10 at the Historic Fort in Fort Lupton.

Family friend Sommer Everson finished her memorial of "Mr. Norcross" with a final toast. According to her family's traditions, anyone not in attendance during a family toast was contacted by a cell phone placed in a glass so they could be present.

Graveside services were held April 10, and later, at the historic fort, Barbara Kirkmeyer spoke about how she first met Norcross when she first ran for Weld County commissioner in 1992.

“I didn’t really know who David was, but apparently he knew who I was because I can still remember when I walked up to his door, No. 29, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to meet Stanley Norcross.’ And when I knocked on the door, he really had a lot of fun with this,” Kirkmeyer said. “I knocked on the door and I asked to speak with Stanley, and he just looked at me at me for a moment.”

Norcross told Kirkmeyer that he would go get “Stanley,” and he closed his door.

“He waits, really, what felt like a whole minute,” Kirmeyer said. “And he opens the door back up and says, ‘Hi, I’m Stanley, but mostly my friends call me David or sometimes they call me Mr. Norcross.’ And then he busted out laughing and invited me in.”

From that day on, Kirkmeyer and Norcross were “buddies,” she said, sharing gossip and history about Fort Lupton and Weld County.

“We became fast friends that day,” Kirkmeyer said. “From that point on, he helped me on every single one of my campaigns. He carried petitions for me; he had some of the best sign locations around. If I needed something, I could call him up. In fact he nominated me a couple of times.

Kirkmeyer recounted how Norcross enjoyed working for many politicians, especially former Senator Wayne Allard.

“He was a great friend and a good guy. David really loved his community a lot, as we all know,” Kirkmeyer said. “We saw him walk all around this community all the time, in fact, we could drive through town and see him walking on any day whether it was snowing, raining, windy, wherever he was going, making sure he was out and involved in the community.”

The two were elected to public office within months of each other, and Kirkmeyer said Norcross was extremely valuable for coordinating projects between Fort Lupton and the county, but she also acknowledged that Norcross had “his ups and downs on council.”

“He was mayor, then he was recalled, then he got back on council,” Kirkmeyer said. “And even after he went through the recall and lost the race, he told me that someday he was going to get back on council, and he did. So I’ve had the pleasure to be able to work him on the last few years.”

Kirkmeyer said that in recent years, Norcross had high praise for his current peers on Fort Lupton’s City Council.

“He told me that this council had a lot of promise,” Kirkmeyer said. “He was really proud to be on this council and working with them.”

Family friends Alexandrea Everson Agustin and Sommer Everson gave the crowd a glimpse of Norcross outside the political sphere.

“Mr. Norcross, really he preferred to be called David,” Agustin said. “But there was something about David that didn’t have the same ring as Mr. Norcross. Eventually, years down the road, we attempted a compromise and tried to convince him — unsuccessfully so, I might add — to become Uncle Norcross or Uncle D.”

Norcross didn’t take the “Uncle” title the younger girls offered him, but Agustin said that was the role he played in her life.

“The strange path of fate brought him to our lives, and now it’s hard to imagine life without him,” Agustin said. “It started with talks after city council meetings, and before we knew it, any family event, holiday or special occasion would not be the same without him there.”

Sommer Everson shared her favorite memory of Norcross when she told him about her desire to get involved in politics.

“So the next thing I know, we’re going up to the Weld County Republican meetings,” Everson said. “We did it all the time, and I have no sense of direction, so I was always lost.”

One night, Everson was driving with Norcross and she admitted that she had no idea where she was going, so she asked him where she should go next.

“He turns to me and says, ‘Sommer, I can’t see,’” Everson said. “And he stopped, and starts to laugh and said, ‘Oh no, this is the blind leading the blind, isn’t it?’”

The blind leading the blind went pretty well, Everson said, and she said Norcross helped lead her in her political career and many other aspects of her life.

“We got into so many adventures,” Everson said. “There’s a saying, and it’s corny, it’s cliche: Friends are the family that you choose. And I can’t think of anybody who that’s more true for me than Mr. Norcross.”